A new set of rules bans grills and cookers, as well as tents, from the oldest part of UGA's campus on football Saturdays.

More and more during the past few years, fans have packed the North Campus quads, trampling grass and leaving behind tons of litter. Last season, heavy rains followed some gamedays, eroding gullies in some areas with no grass left to hold the bare soil in place.

"We can't let it continue to be burned into a swamp," UGA President Michael Adams said Thursday as he unveiled the new rules.

The regulations set new limits on what fans can bring to the oldest part of the UGA campus, but stop far short of an outright ban on tailgating - an option the UGA committee that drew up the plan did discuss, Adams said.

"I think they hit a sensible, happy medium for now," Adams said. "I don't expect an avalanche of calls (complaining about the new restrictions)."

Alumni repeatedly told Adams last year, "You need to do something (about North Campus litter)," the UGA president said. Officials will review how well the plan works at the end of the season, he said Thursday morning.

The new rules ban grills and cookers, but also tents, beer kegs, generators, televisions, amplified music, tables longer than 4 feet and household furniture from North Campus. Folding chairs are OK, according to a summary of the regulations UGA officials released Thursday.

In addition, North Campus tailgaters won't be allowed to set up until four hours before kickoff, according to the new gameday regulations.

Georgia's first home football game is Saturday, Sept. 4 against Louisiana-Lafayette. The first conference game is scheduled for Sept. 18 against Arkansas.

Those changes apply only to North Campus. But a few more new rules will be enforced in all campus parking areas this fall, said Tim Burgess, UGA's senior vice president for business and finance.

Fans now are prohibited from bringing pull-behind items such as trailers and cookers. Golf carts and ATVs also are banned. Those changes will free up additional parking places on crowded football Saturdays, he said.

Another new rule will eat up a few more parking places. A sidewalk parking ban now has been expanded to include the entire campus, including Carlton Street.

Tailgating has changed in the past few years, UGA officials say. The construction of new parking decks and other buildings has displaced fans from their traditional tailgating areas and crowded them into other spots. Tens of thousands of people who don't plan to go to the football games jam Athens and the campus before and during football games, in addition to the more than 92,000 who buy tickets for each home game.

"What has happened the last couple of years on North Campus has not been the tradition. It's been an aberration," Adams said. "It's some of what we want to turn back the clock on."

As tailgating has changed, UGA officials have enacted a series of restrictions since 2006, such as prohibiting parking on sidewalks and grassy areas and banning fans from tapping into campus electric outlets to run TVs and music amplifiers.

After closing off some buildings where fans could use restrooms, UGA workers now place portable toilets around North Campus and some other parts of campus.